


Hope for Home

by inkedauthority



Series: 30 AU prompts [1]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Orphanage, Asexual Character, Asexual Relationship, Eventual Evil Queen | Regina Mills/Emma Swan, F/F, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Young Evil Queen | Regina Mills/Young Emma Swan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-08
Updated: 2017-09-08
Packaged: 2018-12-25 11:31:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12034983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inkedauthority/pseuds/inkedauthority
Summary: “You’re very pretty.” Emma had been going for the word beautiful, but she wasn’t quite sure it would sound right on her uneducated tongue, Boston accent rough and her tone of voice not as poetic as she would like.Regina for her part blushed, ducking her head to take another bite of the sandwich, obviously unused to compliments sent her way.“Is that why you offered me food?” The dark haired girl spoke after several minutes of silence, one slice of the sandwich finished and half the bottle of orange juice left remaining. “You do know that when they say a way to someone’s heart is through their stomach, it’s specifically intended for men only.” Regina was teasing her, Emma realised, but once she picked her head up to stare into endless pools of brown, the other half of the sandwich offered back to her with a tentative smile, Emma knew that whatever admiration she may have been feeling for Regina might be what the older kids called love.Swan Queen orphanage AU.





	Hope for Home

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this thinking it was going to be a short thing, but it turned into this feelsy long one-shot. This is based off the 30 day AU prompt challenge with the prompt being: Orphanage. I spun a whole story around the word and hopes it makes sense.
> 
> All mistakes are mine, Unbeta'd work here.
> 
> Let me know what you think in the comments section so I can improve my writing for future prompts *finger guns*

** 30 AU PROMPTS CHALLENGE. **

** AU 1: ORPHANAGE **

** HOPE FOR HOME by INKEDAUTHORITY **

 

Emma Swan held the hand of her social worker, a woman straight out of school and thrust into the rapidly growing career market. She had long blonde hair much like Emma’s own, blue eyes and a kind smile that was beginning to turn into a pitying frown every time she picked Emma up from a foster home that didn’t work out.

 

According to statistics, considering she was Caucasian, blonde and green eyed, her chances of getting adopted was higher than that of others, especially since she had entered the system at only one day old, small enough for a family to raise her in their ways without undoing any inherited habits she hadn’t the time to learn.

 

Still, Emma was pushed around until she was twelve, a new social worker with bright enthusiasm telling her for the fifth time that year that things would be better, that she would get her family soon enough. How Emma wished it was true, clutching onto the nice woman’s hand and watching as her feet squeaked forward in shoes too big.

 

Despite everything, the hope her social worker had instilled in her remained bright and eager in her eyes, Emma making sure everything she did was perfect, perfect enough to get adopted no matter that she was getting too old for anyone to consider her. Emma Swan was still the best student there was, the best behaved, the most caring and generous; she was perfect up until her social worker brought in the most beautiful girl she had ever seen.

 

Emma was fourteen by the time Regina Mills was placed in the same group home as her, a vision of eerie darkness that seemed to radiate a sense of sadness Emma knew all too well about.

 

The girl Emma peeked at from under her lashes for days was littered with bruises, dark hair fanning over her face to hide her black eye, fingers shaking as she reached for the last of the sandwiches that were pulled from her plate. Despite being seventeen, or so her social worker had told her when she asked, Regina wasn’t big like the other kids, in fact, she seemed almost smaller than Emma with the way she curled into herself no matter anyone’s attempts at getting her to relax.

 

It was day five of watching Regina that Emma noticed the girl had nothing to eat. In fact, almost all Regina’s food seemed to be stolen before she could take more than a few dainty bites, no doubt whoever gave her those bruises commenting a little too much on weight the brunette didn’t seem to have.

 

It was during free hours after school and chores that Emma approached the lost looking girl, a stashed cheese sandwich clutched in her hand and a bottle of juice she had stored away for later in the other.

 

“Hey,” Emma said softly, careful not to startle Regina, but the girl seemed to jump anyways.

 

Instead of the greeting returned, all Emma got was a growl and threat to back off with the most dazzling brown eyes. “I brought you something to eat,” she tried again, offering up the food as a sign of peace. When Regina did not reach for it immediately, obviously suspicious, Emma pulled back with just a hint of a pout on her face, ready to leave the girl alone and never bother her again, but a small tiny voice stopped her in her tracks, a smile quirking her lips upwards in the hope her social worker had insisted was real.

 

“Hi.”

 

It wasn’t much, but Emma took that word for more than it was worth and sat beside Regina on the little broken down bench by the apple tree, their view that of the mismatched playground that only the little kids could fit in.

 

“Cheese sandwich and orange juice.” the food was handed over, this time Regina taking them with both hands and devouring the offered goods, not bothering to eat tidily either. Perhaps Regina was trying to be perfect too, trying to be more than she was worth when so many eyes were watching her.

 

“You’re very pretty.” Emma had been going for the word _beautiful_ , but she wasn’t quite sure it would sound right on her uneducated tongue, Boston accent rough and her tone of voice not as poetic as she would like.

 

Regina for her part blushed, ducking her head to take another bite of the sandwich, obviously unused to compliments sent her way.

 

“Is that why you offered me food?” The dark haired girl spoke after several minutes of silence, one slice of the sandwich finished and half the bottle of orange juice left remaining, “you do know that when they say a way to someone’s heart is through their stomach, it’s specifically intended for men only.” Regina was teasing her, Emma realised, but once she picked her head up to stare into endless pools of brown, the other half of the sandwich offered back to her with a tentative smile, Emma knew that whatever admiration she may have been feeling for Regina might be what the older kids called _love_.

 

Startled at her realisation, Emma hopped off the bench and ran a hand through her unruly hair, gesturing wildly at the half eaten sandwich and bottle of juice “I uh—that’s for you, you can have—I mean eat it. I’m, uh, go-going to go inside.” Nodding her head vigorously, and tripping on her way inside, Emma high tailed it out of there with her heart pounding in her ears and fear spreading quickly through her veins. She couldn’t love Regina, couldn’t think of her as beautiful… it wasn’t perfect to do so, especially with a girl at that, a girl that Emma thought of as perfect in her own dark way.

 

Sliding down onto her bed, an arm slung over her eyes, Emma wished and prayed for anything, anyone to help take this disease away from her. She couldn’t afford to love anyone, no matter how quickly the feeling had washed over her, or how happy she had felt in Regina’s company.

 

The next few weeks had Emma avoiding Regina like the plague, but like most things, Regina refused to leave her, in mind at least. Everywhere she looked, Regina was there, every thought she had it lead to Regina. Things had gotten so bad, Emma decided to keep a diary, just a space to expel her thoughts so it wouldn’t build up and throttle her in her sleep; but Emma should have learned that in group homes like these, nothing ever stayed your own for long.

 

[][][]

 

“Oh my God!” A girl squealed, flimsy book in hand, her friend snickering beside her as the crowd behind them grew bigger. The book was passed along the children, each of them reading pieces out loud, laughing at the words inside them as if I were worth only a few laughs.

 

“Her hair is so shiny, like a dark ocean of secret things,” A boy read aloud in a high pitched voice, the crowd erupting into laughter at his voice, begging him for more, to  mock the words that were written with heart and soul.

 

“The most beautiful eyes I have ever seen, like I could drown in them.”

 

“Green really suits her, but then every colour does. She’s _perfect._ ”

 

Snickers that ran like a Mexican wave through the group only stopped when Regina stood in front of them, eyes hard and a scowl on her face. Over the few weeks with the blonde girl’s kindness stored away like a preserver whenever she needed saving, Regina had gotten stronger, her posture straightening and stare confident when she looked the other children down, most of them making stories up about the scar on her upper lip or the bruises that were beginning to fade. Her silence during free time and shadow-like stealth earning her enough wary glances to have the smaller kids think she was a vampire, others convinced she was some kind of witch when a squirrel she accidentally tripped over ran screaming in the other direction, its high pitched squeal scaring the other children who thought the sound had come from her.

 

Now, as she stood in front of the silent group, Regina held out her hand for the book, one of the bigger kids handing it over with trepidation on his face, pale skin turning red under her glare.

 

“Now scat!” The sudden use of her voice had them all scramble, scattering in every direction and screaming at their top of their lungs, alerting the matron who put them all in time out. Regina simply stood under the apple tree, dark eyes watching the scene unfold before her with the brown standard issue notebook clutched in her arms.

 

[][][]

 

Emma turned her mattress over, bedding flying every which way as she searched and searched for her diary. She couldn’t have lost it, she couldn’t have misplaced the most precious thing to her. During one of the drives back from a foster home that was stifling in their beliefs, her social worker had told her that her thoughts were the most precious things, and no one should change them forcibly or steal them without permission. With her diary gone, Emma felt as if a piece of herself was lost, as if every thought she had about Regina was gone and dumped in the hands of someone undeserving.

 

Chest heaving and tears threatening their descent with every breath, Emma’s bottom lip wobbled when every place she could think to look yielded no results. Someone had taken her diary, taken her thoughts, taken her sanctuary without remorse.

 

Sitting heavily on her bed, duvets sprawled out on the floor around her, Emma pulled her baby blanket toward her and tucked it under her chin, seeking comfort where she could from the one thing that had been stable in her entire life.

 

Emma didn’t see anyone approaching through her blurry vision, but she did feel the dip in the bed next to her, a tentative hand on her shoulder rubbing soothing circles. Wiping her tears away proved to be pointless, because when Emma did look up, staring right into dark brown eyes, the tears fell again in large drops down her cheeks.

 

“I’m sorry,” Regina said softly, wiping away the water from Emma’s cheeks, a familiar brown book in her lap.

 

“Why do you have that?!” The question was yelled out in despair, Emma frantically moving to snatch her diary away, aghast at the idea that Regina could take something so precious from her, read through her mind, snatch her thoughts—

 

Her cheeks were cupped in a firm hold, brown eyes locking with hers as Regina spoke, voice velvety and kind, “I think you’re pretty too,” she said, a small smile on her lips before she pressed it to Emma’s, the kiss soft and chaste, long enough for Emma’s eyes to slip closed and her breath to be held until she felt dizzy.

 

When she did open her eyes again, Regina was walking away leaving her to mull in her thoughts with her diary pressed into her blanket tucked under her chin.

 

The days following had Emma and Regina co-exist silently, their interactions nothing more than passing over the salt at the dinning table or walking together around the playground. Sometimes Regina would brush her fingers against Emma’s as they walked to school together in the large group, and other times she would send Emma a secret smile behind dark lashes and tuck a lock of her hair behind her ears bashfully.

 

Emma was no different, knowing that whatever she was feeling seemed too good to be true, but falling hard and fast anyways. Her diary morphed into a book of poems, odd drawings here and there scattered throughout the margins, a book on shading techniques borrowed from the library waiting on her bed one day after she knew Regina had seen her pathetic attempt at drawing an eye. Emma improved significantly after that, her drawings becoming more realistic as she practiced, her poems rhyming and sonnets working within the frame of fourteen lines now that she knew how to write them. Her words as she studied harder became fluent, the little vocabulary she possessed growing until she was writing essays good enough for teachers to submit to competitions, her art sent off to little exhibitions for schools and winning little prizes at first.

 

Their silent love with soft glances was enough for Emma, but the day she turned fifteen, Regina officially at the group home for two and a half months, they finally spoke more than one word to each other, and Emma decided she loved the sound of Regina’s voice more than she cared to admit.

 

[][][]

 

It was late, much later than she was supposed to stay up, the moon hanging overhead to cast its glow upon the birthday girl who sat on the broken bench beneath the apple tree.

 

“Happy birthday,” A rough voice said from behind her, causing Emma to jump in her seat, a giggle her only indication that the intention of the person was not to scare her.

 

“If you keep that up, I’ll only live long enough to see this one.” She was just teasing, but the moment Regina cupped her cheek and turned her gaze to meet watery brown eyes, Emma knew that something she said had hit home.

 

“I’m sorry,” The older girl breathed, sitting down next to Emma, her body facing the opposite way but torso turned so she could still gaze into blue-green eyes.

 

“It’s okay.” Feeling brave enough to touch as Regina touched her, Emma lifted her hand up to graze her thumb along the scar adorning the brunette’s upper lip, a gasp making her pause her actions immediately, afraid she had hurt the other girl in some way.

 

“It’s ugly,” Regina rasped, turning her head away and dropping her hand from Emma’s cheek, the blonde feeling the coolness of the night sting her skin where it was previously warm.

 

“It’s beautiful, it’s unique.”

 

“You think so?” The hope shining in Regina’s eyes was enough for Emma, the sight making her chest swell with love and adoration, a feeling she swore she would hold onto and replicate with Regina as long as she were alive.

 

“I love you.” Perhaps it was not the best thing to say, but her naïve heart had latched onto Regina, felt the waves of her affection with little things she did over the few weeks after the kiss that hadn’t been spoken about. Emma wasn’t going to let go of the first feeling of home she had since she was tossed aside at age three, her first family sending her back to make space for their own biological child.

 

The sheen in Regina’s eyes was unmistakable, her fingers twisting within each other, a ring pushed from one finger to another until Emma placed a gentle hand on her wrist, stopping the frantic movements. “I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable. I—I don’t mind if you don’t feel the same way, I understand.”

 

“No, No!” Regina was quick to interject, her hand slipping down to lace her fingers with Emma’s, “I just… no one has ever said they love me before.”

 

Emma didn’t know Regina’s whole story, but she smiled tentatively at her anyways, content to be the one to provide the brunette with the affection she needed, to see her light up from the inside out. That didn’t mean to say that Emma didn’t admire the darkness around Regina, there was something wholly beautiful about her when she was alone, a frown on her face that showed concentration and dark hair covering her face from failed attempts of tucking it behind her ears, but this light… there was something special about it too. Emma was beginning to think that everything was special about Regina, and it wasn’t all that bad a thought.

 

“I’m going to be eighteen soon,” Regina whispered, breaking their companionable silence, “I’ll have to leave.”

 

Emma stiffened at the thought of Regina being so far away, but she knew the group home wouldn’t hold Regina much longer until the end of her senior year. She would have to make a name for herself in the world alone, and Emma was too young to do anything to help.

 

“Will you still love me when I’m not here?” The question was a quiet one, whispered into Emma’s ear, as if it were a secret only Regina should know the answer to. In response, Emma leaned up to kiss Regina’s cheek, dark lashes brushing against her own when their noses bumped accidentally, shy smiles shared under the moonlight.

 

“Always.”

 

[][][]

 

Regina had turned eighteen two months before the school year was over, winning a scholarship to study in a teaching college she took with open arms. No one was going to pay for her education if she wasn’t adopted, and even if she didn’t see herself as much of a teacher, Regina knew it was her best bet to get a start in the world that was cruel to those who couldn’t afford to be in it.

 

Emma’s mood after handing over a beautiful book filled with drawings and a story of a Queen Reina and Princess Emily falling in love to Regina had become sombre. She would find excuses to be close to Regina where it wasn’t usually an issue, her fingers intertwining with the older girl’s and dragging her feet at dinnertime to escort the brunette to her dorm. Regina could see that Emma was trying to make as much memories as she could before they were separated, and she complied only because she wanted the same thing.

 

The day of her high school graduation marked their first real kiss.

 

Emma had been crying, clutching onto Regina at the back of the graduation hall and Regina only held her close to her chest, their usually quiet love dissolving with wails that passed blame, fists that clutched onto a black gown too tightly and promises Regina knew she couldn’t keep.

 

“I love you, I love you so much,” Regina had said, wiping away Emma’s tears, her own cascading down her cheeks in an agony she couldn’t quite explain to anyone else.

 

“Promise me you will wait for me,” Emma demanded desperately, clutching onto the lapels of Regina’s graduation gown, the dress beneath it a deep purple, one Emma had been given by one of her nice foster mothers before she passed away and the blonde was sent back by her grieving foster father. The dress was too big for her, but looked beautiful on Regina.

 

Nodding her head once, and then three times thereafter in quick succession, Regina was sure she looked like a dog, but it seemed to pacify Emma, the younger girl flying into her arms, pale lips that tasted of saltwater pressed against her own tightly; it felt like they were saying goodbye, and Regina hated it, hated it enough to lean back in for more, this time her mouth parting to catch Emma’s top lip between her own, fingers curling at the base of her love’s neck, pulling her impossibly closer.

 

It was then that things spiralled downwards, the goodbye Regina thought she imagined becoming real in an instant.

 

[][][]

 

Standing at the door of the orphanage, Regina pulled her second hand suitcase down the paved driveway, her sparse belongings packed carefully around Emma’s fairy tale book, the last thing she had left of the blonde girl with green eyes that was wrenched away from her before she had time to properly say goodbye.

 

Everyone refused to tell her where Emma went, where they had taken the girl that believed in her, that loved her despite her dreary disposition and dark energy that reeked of sadness. Their love was labelled a sin, the matron threatening her with calling the college sponsoring her and cutting off her funding. She had no right, and Regina argued as much, but Emma had pulled her into her dorm the day before she disappeared and whispered how much she loved her, pulling a ribbon from her baby blanket out to wrap around Regina’s wrist in a promise that she wasn’t sure she could keep.

 

They moved her to a different group home, Regina knew that much, but with Boston such a large city and Regina moving all the way to New York, she didn’t have many resources to look for the girl. Her only hope as she drove away to the train station was that Emma would forgive her if she couldn’t locate her in time.

 

[][][]

 

At eighteen years old, Emma Swan had written two manuscripts, twenty nine decent poems out of the hundreds she jotted down, and had drawn Regina Mills’ face at least once a day. Her mind tried to trick her into believing Regina had forgotten her, but her heart clutched onto the hope her social worker had given her, the woman now worn down to the bone with a wariness that all social workers wore after a few years.

 

It was the end of the school year when she was finally released from care, taking a small job as a barista in a local coffee shop and trying to pay her way through small writing courses that interested her. She managed the mundane life for a while, waiting for Regina to walk in through the doors of the cafe, hoping the reunion would be like something out of romance novels, but alas, Regina never came, and the years crawled by with her hope dwindling every day.

 

By the time Emma turned twenty two, she was chasing down bail jumpers for extra cash, the experiences she had more valuable when she translated it into written word, a third manuscript being written but the other two gathering dust in her drawer from fear of failure.

 

Poetry had long been forgotten, her pencils and pens only used to scribble down addresses and names before even Regina herself was a distant thought at the back of Emma’s head, her writing pausing halfway through her third manuscript to become but only a document on her beat up second hand laptop.

 

Life had become comfortable for Emma, a dull routine that she had mastered as a child, one she had perfected in an ironic way that hadn’t gotten her adopted. Everything was boring, empty, but it was okay, and _Emma_ was okay with that, until one day, the thing she had been missing so much appeared out of nowhere.

 

[][][]

 

At twenty five years old, Regina Mills had her bachelors in English under her belt and a teaching diploma which she attached to the end of her degree, convincing the university that she would be better equipped with two qualifications in the same avenue they were sponsoring her in rather than one with only a promotion as head of department to look forward to for the rest of her life. Thankfully the university was associated with a publishing company and was agreeable after they had her sign a one year internship contract before she was allowed to study.

 

It wasn’t so bad at first, her heavy workload distracting her from the guilt in her chest, one that reminded her that Emma’s uprooting of her home was her fault. She had tried so hard during her years at college to contact Emma, calling in at the orphanage and asking about Emma’s whereabouts only to be denied by the matron who seemed to loathe Regina.

 

Thereafter she had tried locating Emma’s social worker, but Emma didn’t provide her with a name, the girl probably didn’t bother to remember such details anyways.

 

Seven years released from that orphanage and Regina called every week like clockwork, inquiring about Emma Swan, any leads, any parents, any other group homes she could call. Eventually the matron had died, the information Regina so desperately wanted dying with her, but Regina never gave up, the callbox on her way to work used to contact every place she knew they would take Emma, until one day she had hit gold, only Emma had already turned eighteen by then and no one knew where she had gone.

 

The mounting frustrations of her life had hit her hard, hard enough to chop off all her hair and yell out into her tiny bathroom, the rented apartment shared with an interning nurse who was thankfully never at home.

 

She grew to like her shortened hair once she got it cut properly at a salon she could barely afford, convincing herself that she had to look professional for her job and not like her hair had gotten caught in a lawnmower. It would have been a funny story to tell Emma, one Regina knew she would laugh at and write about, her beautiful drawings still gorgeous enough to have butterflies erupt in her stomach whenever she thought of them. Regina often wondered about the girl that made her feel worthy, of the blonde who trusted her with the ribbon encased in a silver locket hanging over her heart at all times.

 

It was one of those days again when Regina would call the orphanage, first the one she had shared with Emma and then the one Emma had been shifted through, and as usual the news would always be one of disappointment, one Regina took in her stride before walking to the subway to catch a train for work, now an assistant to a publisher not to be late— but this time, clutching the phone to her ear with an unfamiliar man on the other end, one who shouted out, “Emma Swan?!” into the vastness outside their phone call, Regina began to have hope once more, that hope only bursting into gasping sobs of relief once the man had carelessly said, “Yeah she’s here actually.”

 

Back in Boston, picture in hand, an aggressive snarl on her face as she leaned over the matron in her old group home, Emma began to unravel a tale of sabotage and unyielding love the moment she took on a mark that lead her straight to the source of it all, the stupid man taking a job in the orphanage to hopefully cover his tracks, but when her mark emerged from the backroom shouting her name, Emma the idiot had picked her head up and growled out a, “yeah?!” advancing on the man to cuff him and throw him inside her cheap vintage beetle, but instead the receiver of a corded phone was thrust into her hand, her confused frown deepening the longer she stood there.

 

Hesitatingly putting the receiver to her ear, keeping her eyes on the oblivious man as she did so, Emma greeted the person on the other end of the line, a gruff, “hello?” falling from her lips.

 

“ _Emma._ ” she knew that voice, knew the reverence with which it was said.

 

“Regina?” She breathed back, clutching the phone to her ear with both hands, almost as if the action would be able to cradle Regina on the other end of the line.

 

 

 

“Where have you been?” Regina asked, voice shaky and fingers barely managing to feed the callbox more money. She had gone past sadness and relief and was now onto anger. How dare Emma leave her hanging like this for so many years? Didn’t she know how much Regina ached for her?

 

“I’ve been right here.”

 

“Bullshit!” The curse word made her flinch, but Regina ploughed on, her grip on the metal cord tight with frustration.

 

“I called every week! Every damn week since I left to New York looking for you. No one would tell me anything, I thought—I thought you forgot me, or was dead, or—or, I don’t know!” Her gasping sobs was barely held back, one mirrored by Emma on the other end of the line, the silent party in their conversation holding the static between them a little longer, her emotions turbulent with the weight that Regina hadn’t forgotten her, had waited as she asked all those years ago.

 

“ _Regina,_ ” she whispered again, eyes clenching shut as she leaned against the wall, her sobs this time making her chest heave and little gasps escape her lips. For someone tossed around so much as a child, unwanted by the masses who took her for a test run, the one person she loved with her whole soul actually stood by her despite her presence lost. It was everything to her, to know her home had never been forgotten, only moved and shifted, held apart by hands that were beyond understanding the affection that ran between two orphans looking for a place to belong.

 

“Emma please, don’t—don’t cry. I’m here, I’ve never left. I’m with you.”

 

“I want to come home.” The words were said in a high pitched whine, Regina nearly breaking down at the fragility in Emma’s voice, in the child that hadn’t quite left them both no matter how big the world thought them to be.

 

“Stay in town. I’m going to come and get you, okay? Emma, listen to me—listen to me, darling. I’m going to take off from work, and then call the orphanage back at 5pm today to let you know when I’m coming. We’ll be fine.”

 

“Promise?” Emma sniffled

 

“Always.”

 

[][][]

 

After her full day at work where her mind raced and thoughts jumbled, Regina managed to get the rest of the week off, excitement over seeing Emma after so many years having her pack everything of significance and book a train for the next morning.

 

Their phone call was slightly less emotional this time around, details exchanged quickly to help Regina avoid the cold outside and a hesitant but not unwelcomed, “I missed you,” shared between them before Regina hung up.

 

The morning had been a rush, Regina having overslept after suffering from insomnia the night before, her nerves building with every passing hour until she was a sobbing wreck. After all these years of a gentle love, Regina didn’t think she deserved to see Emma again, already thinking her lifetime of feeling such happiness had been played out and cashed in too early. After all, it was what mother had repeatedly said to her before the beatings became too much to hide from anyone and social services had been called in. She was too old to be adopted, unwanted by her living mother for anything other than a punching bag, and then Emma had come along, given her the gift of kindness and tenderness that she had wanted for her whole life.

 

Arriving at Penn station with minutes to spare, suitcase lugged behind her in desperate tugs to get the thing moving faster despite it being crammed with presents for Emma she had seen in shop windows on her way home the day before, Regina stepped into her respective train after checking in her suitcase and flopped onto the cushioned seat that soon allowed her to finish the remaining hours of her sleep.

 

When she next awoke it was to the sound of the train doors opening and people moving about around her nearly five hours later. Checking her watch for the time, Regina ran her hand down her face and through her hair to try and seem a little presentable. Emma had agreed to pick her up from the train station instead of taking a taxi, and Regina had readily agreed then, her excitement over meeting Emma a few hours earlier trumping her need to gather her wits about her before coming face to face with the woman she had been searching for, for seven years.

 

Reapplying a layer of burgundy lipstick, Regina wiped beneath her eyes and deemed her face free of any embarrassing signs of sleep with the help of her little pocket mirror. Straightening her clothes as she walked out onto the platform, her bag in a pile by other luggage, Regina made her way over and pulled the flimsy thing toward her, never having the heart to replace the same suitcase she had left the orphanage with. Once she was sure she had everything she needed, the brunette stepped out of the way and almost wished she delayed a little longer within the train the moment her eyes locked onto blue-green ones.

 

Emma stood as a stark contrast to the rest of the people waiting for their loved ones, red leather jacket a sight for sore eyes and curly blonde hair shining against the station lights. Regina could see the way muscles rippled underneath skin tight jeans, the way the leather jacket stretched over tough looking arms. Despite Emma having grown so much, her attire fit for a man, she looked wholly feminine, a sight that had Regina smile just slightly.

 

They both had changed over the years, and the way Emma swept her gaze across her appearance told Regina as much. She must look so different from the depressed teenager that hid behind her long hair that was now cut to barely graze her shoulders. Gone were the ill fitting clothes on either of them, and instead Regina stood there, facing Emma in a black coat she paid good money for and jeans that tucked into black boots not unlike Emma’s brown ones.

 

“Hey,” Emma breathed once Regina walked over, her heart banging against her chest, fingers fumbling for the suitcase she pulled from Regina’s hands to have something to do.

 

“Hi,” Regina whispered back, smile picking up and falling down again. There was an awkward air around them that Regina didn’t account for, but it only lasted so long before Emma stepped forward into her space, eyes searching her own for the promise she had kept for years.

 

Throwing her arms around the blonde, Regina wept in relief at finally finding the woman she had fallen in love with all those years ago, her sobs mingling with laugher as Emma picked her up and spun her around, the young woman’s emotions rivalling Regina’s own as things they hadn’t had a chance to say came spilling forth in the tight embrace that needed no words.

 

The silence stretched between them once they were all cried out, both of them sitting side by side on a bench that wasn’t broken, their view that of moving train that sometimes stopped, passengers staring at them as they walked on by.

 

It was comfortable, the static that had always cuddled their yearning for each other, but like old times, Emma broke it with a grin and whisper, her pinkie curling around Regina’s, “You’re very pretty.”

 

Regina could only bark out a laugh, a blush painting her cheeks rose, time teaching her not to duck and hide her pleasure at a compliment meant sincerely for her. “I think you’re pretty too,” she whispered back, turning her head toward Emma to provide her with a dazzling smile, one that warmed the blonde from her head to her toes, the light she had seen in Regina all those years ago now a radiant sun.

 

The contagious smile from Regina touched her own lips, her smile pressed to Regina’s in a chaste kiss that pushed them in a full circle, one that had them find home again, one they had never truly lost.

 

[][][]

 

“Emma!” Regina squealed, her wheezes of laughter rendering her unable to formulate more than the two syllable name, “ _help!_ ” and a plea apparently.

 

“Oh no!” Emma laughed, raising her hands in surrender as she packed away groceries, thoroughly enjoying the sight of her wife receiving payback for the day before when she was the subject of blown raspberries and tickle fights that left her breathless, “not getting involved.”

 

“Mama help!” Little Mary Margaret giggled, tugging on Emma’s jeans to get the blonde to free her other mother, the child enamoured with Regina and always taking her side.

 

“Okay, okay! Break it up you two,” Emma chided lightly, watching as Henry burrowed into Regina’s stomach, a mischievous smile on his face as arms encircled Regina’s waist to gain a hug instead, sides switched far too easily in the Swan-Mills household.

 

“Thank you,” Mary Margaret said seriously, although it came out more like _"th’k oh"_   with the bottle of milk still in her mouth.

 

Being one and a half years old, Emma and Regina had yet to properly wean Mary Margaret, the child simply chewing on the plastic nipple more than drinking the offered milk, but every time they tried she screamed so loud none of them could take it. It was a trying process, but Emma knew they would get there eventually, what with this being their first experience with such a small child in their house that depended on them for so many things.

 

Mary Margaret had been a happy accident—well, not so happy at first, not when Regina had been given quite the scare when she arrived home from volunteering at the nearby orphanage only to see that the toddler had crawled into her car when she wasn’t looking, the child seeming to think of her immediately as _“Mummy,”_ and following her around everywhere. At Emma’s pout and instance, they had adopted the babe as their own, the child still very much attached to Regina no matter the older woman’s attempts to pawn her off to Emma when she needed her alone time.

 

“Thank you, darling,” Regina chuckled, pressing a kiss to Emma’s shoulder from behind before grabbing a few things off the counter and putting it away, Mary Margaret trailing behind her as she moved from cupboard to cupboard.

 

“I think this means you owe me one.”

 

“Oh?” Regina hummed, an eyebrow quirking up once she was done with the remaining groceries, leaning back against the counter with Mary Margaret attempting to climb up her legs.

 

“The last time I asked you for help you joined the boys and attacked me. Its only fair you owe me a favour.”

 

Picking Mary Margaret up to place the child on her hip, Regina laughed and brushed past Emma, her hand running through Henry’s hair as he darted to the pantry, their thirteen year old son eager to see what treats he could devour before supper.

 

“What do you want, love?” Regina asked, removing the bottle from Mary Margaret’s hand to place it on the counter, hoping her presence would distract the child who grabbed her hair instead, the black locks settling between her shoulder blades in length now.

 

“How about you be on my team for once?” The glint in Emma’s eyes was unmistakable when she reached for Henry, his peels of laugher and pleas of mercy calling his brother to him, a ten year old August who only got caught by Regina, tickling both him and Mary before they all ran from their mothers, ducking and hiding until they ran outside in the large garden, their laughter making Emma’s chest swell with love.

 

“I’m always on your team,” Regina whispered in her ear once she was sure the children were occupied with their mini playground outside, all three of them adopted to provide them a home Emma and Regina would have wished for themselves.

 

It had been a long twelve years of healing for them both, their time spent together since the train station tentative at first, traumas about their childhood slowly unveiled in an adult communication they lacked as children. It was Regina who suggested therapy for their issues, and it worked to scab over horrible things that affected them both, their missing pieces filled with their own sense of self worth that seemed to intertwine around each other with a new sort of respect and love for their pasts.

 

Regina had opened up about her mother’s abuse, Emma had talked about her foster homes and the neglect she experienced there.

 

The older brunette had admitted to never feeling sexual attraction to anyone, and Emma had held her hands and said she didn’t mind, their intimacy never needing more than a few kisses and silent gazes to convey something that lived in their hearts and souls. Regina had cried that day, held Emma tight against her until she fell asleep, their relationship moving forward without the weight of expectation placed on them both.

 

Emma had suggested adopting older children in the future and Regina had readily agreed, the ring on her finger small and subtle but meaningful all the same the week later.

 

Three years it took to edit Emma’s manuscripts, get it perfect enough to publish in the company Regina was working at, and it had become rather well known, bringing in enough income for them to start the family they always wanted in a house that was built from dreams.

 

Regina went on to become a publicist herself, starting her own company that took off successfully, catering to those underprivileged and providing job opportunities where it could in a community usually underfed.

 

“You know,” Emma started, drawing Regina’s attention to her, “my social worker, she said always hold onto hope. One day, she was sure, that I would find my family… and she brought you into that group home two years later, not knowing it would be the girl with dark eyes that gave me exactly what I dreamt of.”

 

“Oh Emma,” Regina murmured into her wife’s hair, kissing her temple fondly, “I’m so glad you held onto that hope. I would have drowned without it.”

 

Snorting at the overly poetic words, Emma turned in Regina’s arms and tickled her sides, making the brunette squirm away from her with a disbelieving laugh. “I thought you were on my team!” Regina said, batting wiggling fingers away.

 

“Always,” Emma replied, kissing Regina chastely before their children ran in again, attacking both their mothers with kisses and tickles that was only stopped after Emma produced a bar of chocolate in bribe.

 

Looking at the picture before her, pieces of chocolate shared between her family of five, Regina decided that the lost little girls with too much weight on their shoulders would be proud, they would revel at the fact that they were not orphans anymore, that they had instead found a home within each other, and would always have one no matter what.

 


End file.
